[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
[quote]Daniel-San wrote:
Well, guess I was wrong, I thought I saw someone here defending that idea in another thread. Guess I’ll just explain that the stress on the lower back isn’t significant enough, as long as they don’t have one of those contortionist arches.
BTW, is there any reason not to teach the average gym goer to bench powerlifting style? I know they don’t giva a a flying fuck about pl, but I guess that if they bench anyway, might as well do it as best as possible. Am I wrong?[/quote]
Or, rather than trying to explain anything to anyone that has a preconceived notion about benching you could remind them that one of the worst, long term activities for their back is sitting at a desk for years. That’s what aggravates my lower back.[/quote]
This is the god damn truth right here.
The arch should enforce more t spine mobility vs l spine. When you lay flat, your low back is still arched to a degree, but when you actually arch, most of it comes from your upper back.
Now when you are a powerlifter, you are of course cranking every single joint. But to a typical gym goer, just arching moderately would help them a ton.
The arch as a way to shorten the ROM should not be your first thoughts.
The arch on a bench should be a side effect from rolling your shoulders under on the set-up, which is meant to involve the upper back more in both the eccentric and concentric phases of the bench. Also, this focuses the motion more over the chest and take pressure off of the shoulders, literally trading small muscle groups for big ones.
My bench days were over. Shoulders hurt bad. Switched to dumbells, and had to have them handed to me, because it hurt to even pick them up.
Then I heard a voice, “maybe you just don’t know how to fucking bench.” and I listened to the voice, and I changed the way I benched, and my shoulders quit hurting. The voice was wise.
It is so much better that I now train and compete in the bench. There are so many people that go to gyms and want to suceed, but have no clue to what is going on.
The hard part is being able to seperate the ones who want to know better, from the ones who’ll tell you to mind your own business.
[quote]greystoke wrote:
My bench days were over. Shoulders hurt bad. Switched to dumbells, and had to have them handed to me, because it hurt to even pick them up.
Then I heard a voice, “maybe you just don’t know how to fucking bench.” and I listened to the voice, and I changed the way I benched, and my shoulders quit hurting. The voice was wise.
It is so much better that I now train and compete in the bench. There are so many people that go to gyms and want to suceed, but have no clue to what is going on.
The hard part is being able to seperate the ones who want to know better, from the ones who’ll tell you to mind your own business.[/quote]
QFT.
It was actually a competitive bodybuilder who taught be to bench with an arch.